Japanese assistance to eye donation & blindness prevention: Suzuki Motorcycle donates ambulances to Niramaya Charitable Trust, other NGOs

NEW DELHI: Working towards preventing blindness for 17 years, the Niramaya Charitable Trust has finally caught the attention of a Japanese 2-wheeler maker giant Suzuki Motorcycle that has donated three patient transport vehicles for community eye care and eye banking to it.

It has paved the way for more multinational companies (MNCs) especially from East Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, and others to consider Niramaya Charitable Trust for their social funding projects.

Suzuki Motorcycle India, the subsidiary of Japanese auto giant Suzuki Motor recently donated 20 ambulances (patient transport vehicles) to many social organizations (NGOs) at a ceremony held at the Gurdwara Bala Sahib, New Delhi recently.

Koichiro Hirao, Managing Director, Suzuki Motorcycle who was present during an event donated five ambulances to the Guru Harkrishan Institute of Medical Sciences and Research’s 100-bed dialysis center that offers free dialysis treatment. The facility has been built by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) to offer free dialysis facilities to the patients.

“It is a big gesture by the Suzuki Motorcycle and we feel highly indebted for their generous act of kindness. We were in dire need of these vehicles as the vehicles that we would use to ferry patients were getting worn out,” said Dr. Hitendra Ahooja, Medical Director, MS (Ophthalmology), Fellow- Cornea and anterior segment (LVP Eye Institute, Hyderabad), Niramaya Charitable Trust.

Dr. Ahooja is one of the foremost eye surgeons in Gurgaon, and also represents Ahooja Eye & Dental Institute (NABH Accredited ), Gurugram.

Niramaya Charitable Trust was registered in January 2004 at Gurgaon (Gurugram) with a mission of providing ‘Quality Health Care to the Rural and Urban Poor’. It has Doctors, Engineers, Management professionals, and Executives from MNCs, etc. as Founder Members.

Dr. T. N. Ahooja, President, Niramaya Charitable Trust has been successfully managing Ahooja Eye Hospital and has more than 4 decades of exemplary track record of serving the society through various charitable health care institutions in and around Gurgaon.

Various projects carried out by the Trust include ‘Drishtimitra’ under Corporate Social Responsibility.

“We have been able to provide primary and secondary eye care to about 1,00,000 beneficiaries spread over about 45 villages. The project included screening, specialist referrals, provision of spectacles, medicines, and cataract surgeries wherever required,” said Dr. Ahooja.

It’s another flagship project Eye Bank that was started as ‘Y P Mahindru Niramaya Eye Bank’, in Gurgaon, was the only Eye Bank in South Haryana, duly approved by state authorities, for Cornea Retrieval, Processing, and Transplant.

The Trust also launched a campaign ‘Netra Daan Chetna Abhiyan’  in 2005 by inviting and since then it has managed to get 2912 eye donations and carried out about 1100+ free corneal transplants at Gurgaon. The rest of the corneas have been transplanted by AIIMS, Delhi, and PGIMS, Rohtak (Haryana) through an ongoing tie-up.

The Trust also runs a Mobile Eye Care Unit and Project Motiya Bund project.

It has launched an innovative & effective eye care solution for rural eye care requirements, and started the service at Seven centers; Tauru, Nuh, Pataudi, Farruknagar, Rewari, Sec – 14, and Ganga Giri Kutia (about 20-40 Kms from Gurgaon) with a purpose to cover rural areas in about 60 Kms radius of Gurgaon for logistical reasons.

Under the Project Motiya Bund launched with a view to providing easy access to cataract surgery to everyone, the beneficiaries are charged nothing, while delivering high quality, best in class equipment and practices are followed and proper pre and post-operative care, medicines, dark glasses, etc. are provided.

“Under this project, we have carried out about 8043+free surgeries in ten years. This number is expected to rise to 1000 per annum. We have been conducting regular eye camps, mostly in rural areas in South Haryana. Free expert advice and medicines were provided at these eye camps by qualified and experienced doctors,” Dr. Ahooja added.